Five Ways to Get Exactly the Cover You Pictured

These five habits are the difference between a cover that is close and a cover that is right. None of them cost anything.

1. Describe the idea in far more detail than feels necessary

Write down everything you have pictured. Attach references and photographs for each element separately. Talk about the colours, the angle, the atmosphere. Show the covers you like. There is no such thing as too much here.

2. Prepare your character in advance

For cartoon and 3D work: photograph your face straight on and in profile, choose the clothes and accessories beforehand and send pictures of them, and decide the expression, the posture and what the character is doing.

3. Put the brief in writing

Written, not voice. It is easy to skip a small thing while talking, and impossible to check afterwards. In text the information sits point by point, and the artist can go back and verify that nothing was missed.

4. Sketch it yourself

This one arguably belongs first. The single most useful thing a client can do is draw the idea in pencil on paper and photograph it. A rough sketch communicates a layout in a way that no description matches, and the details end up where you meant them to be.

5. Leave enough time

Give the cover the same attention you gave the release. Do not run it in a hurry — this is the first impression the song makes. Think the idea through, talk it over with the artist, and give them room. The less rushed the work, the more confident you can be in the result.